January 18, 2015

Nothing, but nothing, beats a really great grilled cheese sandwich. If you've seen the movie Chef, you know how much of an event a grilled cheese sandwich can be. Like the dad in the movie, my father was our family's official grilled cheese master, carefully buttering white bread, precisely positioning a few square slices of yellow cheese, pressing it flat under a plate in a frying pan on the stove, tending it until the bread turned perfectly golden. Well, that was a bit of heaven to me. Nowadays my grilled cheese creations tend to end up in the panini press, and there's usually more between the pieces of bread than just one type of cheese. Greens, meats, multiple cheeses, roasted vegetables: anything goes. In this sandwich, the honey-mustard sauce marries the mild turkey and cheese with the spicy arugula and red pepper. You can swap rotisserie chicken for the turkey.

January 14, 2015

Photography not being my strong suit, the only way I can convince you that these tuna burgers are lick-the-plate good is to confess that two of us ate enough for four, and probably would have kept going if I'd made a larger batch. Everything except the fresh tuna comes right from the pantry, making these burgers quick and easy for weeknight dinners or weekend lunch. For sliders, divide the tuna mixture into eight patties insead of four. If you're like me and get mad cravings for Sriracha, you'll love the spicy sauce slathered on top of each burger. Although you can cook these on a grill or panini press, a stovetop frying pan works best, because fish burgers are a bit delicate and like to be settled on a flat surface. When you're in the mood for a burger but want something lighter and healthier than beef, this recipe will surely satisfy.

July 16, 2014

Although the kitchen has been hot, hot, hot for the past few weeks, I'm keeping my cool, with a little help from the slow cooker. In the summer, I eat cold salads more often than not, but when I do cook, I make enough to stash in the freezer, to carry me through the dog days. This shredded hoisin beef appeals to eaters of all ages, it freezes perfectly, and it's a flexible filling for sandwiches or sliders, or light and lean lettuce wraps, depending on who wants what. Hoisin sauce contains sugar, and though rice vinegar cuts the sweetness a bit, we still call this "hoisin beef candy" in our house. When you're slow cooking to shred, please try my technique of cutting the meat into quarters, and browning each piece on all sides. With more surface area, the edges get nice and "burnt", almost like barbecue. The lip-smacking sweet sauce will dribble down your chin, also just like barbecue. Top sandwiches or wraps with some raw crunchy vegetables (I like radishes and carrots) for contrast.

June 5, 2014

In the house where I grew up, tuna salad sandwiches ruled. Nobody really liked peanut butter and jelly, and tuna from a can was easier to make than egg salad, which ran a close second in the sandwich race. We didn't go in for fancy: tuna, Miracle Whip (yes, really), sometimes a slice of tomato, and mushy bread. It doesn't sound terrific now, but when I was a kid, that was nirvana in my lunchbox, and I could eat that sandwich every day.

December 5, 2013

With a gazillion seasonal recipes flooding the Internet -- Thanksgiving and Chanukah collided last week, Christmas and New Year's recipes are piling up, and elaborately-decorated sugar cookies just might take over the planet -- I'm here to offer you, quite simply, the very best bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich I've ever tasted. I can't take credit for it; that honor belongs to Picco, a little pizza restaurant across the street from my house in Boston. Their BLT is off the menu until tomato season next summer, but I couldn't wait that long to have it again, and I don't want you to wait, either. Spring for a single out-of-season heirloom tomato at the market, if you must; this BLT is worth it. Salty, garlicky, herby green goddess dressing seduces the crisp bacon, juicy tomato and crunchy lettuce in a way that plain old mayonnaise cannot. Two pieces of toasted or grilled bread (Picco chars theirs in wood-fired ovens) hold it all together. Stairway to BLT heaven, I promise.